German to UK phone connector conversion

Hi All

Bit of a sad, nerdy question: I have a nice DECT Phone here in Munch and would like to take it back home to the UK. A couple of questions arise:

Given the only 'obvious' problem is the physical connector, does a converter exist? If so any pointers?
Given the propensity for litigation, is it actually legal to use an EU Phone on the UK system (I have cable)...

If either or both of these result in no, I will have to flog it

Mark

You just need to change the connecting cable, availble from Maplins etc..

Its perfectly legal to use in the UK.. its the Non Dect phones from the states that break regulations here!

G

doh - having used the search on TT, dingbat here forgot about google... yes of course, Maplin et al... however, does anyone know the actual code for the DE connector? The UK one is RJ11.

Thanks G.

The UK does NOT use RJ11. They use either a 431A (4-way) or 631A (6-way) plug according to BS6312 which fit into a Type 600 socket, known as a "BT Socket". You are unlikely to find a TAE(German plug)-431A adapter. Fortunately most telephones with removable chords use RJ11 sockets, so you need an RJ11-431A cable to replace the RJ11-TAE (German) cable you already have. Available almost anywhere, even places like Currys, you can get them from Maplins here

If you cant find the right cable, you could always take a German telephone socket with you and swop out the one un the UK... for example.

One thing.

For some reason bosch/siemens/D-telkom dect phones have their wires in a different order to "normal" phones at the phone end of cable.

If you are looking for an adapter for the telephone plug then this wont matter. However if you are looking to change the whole cable then you need to bear that in mind (assuming of course you have a bosch/siemens/telkom phone)

I found this in reverse by trying to use my UK phone over here and buying the wrong cable, whereas what I needed was an "everyone else" cable used by say Panasonic, all modems, etc

Another thing- my UK (analogue, non cordless) phone doesnt ring in Germany as the ring circuitry is different between UK and Germany. Again with a Dect phone esp a non-German brand this may not be a problem.

sorry duplicate...

German manufactured phones in general, and especially Siemens (who make phones for Bosch and Telekom) use wires 1 and 4 in the 4-wire connector. Most of the rest of the world use wires 2 and 3. This is the difference between a "German" cable and an "International" cable as sold in many stores. Many phones (and some cables) short connection 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 so it doesn't matter which cable you use

The English phone system raises the line voltage to 90v to signal ringing. Germany. like the rest of Europe raises the line voltage to only 60v. For most none-German phones this is just enough to make them ring, but for many devices expected to automatically answer the phone (such as answering machine or fax) this is not enough, the affect being that the phone seems to work to make calls, and sometimes receive calls, but not always answer the answering machine or receive a fax. Many phones sold in England but designed for the Intenrational market may well work here. The simple solution to the problem, if you have an English phone that does not work is to build a small adapter with a balast capacitor to pump up the ringing voltage to an acceptable level.

wouldn't the simple solution actually be to just buy a new phone that does work? They are not gold-plated and don't cost a bomb

Some of the swankier cordless phones with answering machine and multiple cordless handsets cost over £100 in UK, fax machines even more. If you can build an adapter for under €5 to make it work here, then the YorkshireMan in me comes to the fore (but I hope it never shows!), and you don't need to struggle wih a new UI or foreign manual.

YL6